Conventionally, when printing is to be performed on postcards, a method of performing printing on the postcards one by one is generally used. In this case, many wordprocessors or so-called envelope addressers support layouts in accordance with postal cards, and allow zip codes and the like to be precisely set in printed frames.
A four-postcard sheet is also available, on which four postcards are arranged in a 2×2 matrix.
Such four-postcard sheets can be used even in conventional printers which could not use postcards because their paper size was too small. A printer designed to charge a user based on the print speed or the number of sheets printed is required to support the use of four-postcard sheets because of the economical reason, that is, the charge reduces to ¼.
In order to provide a layout scheme capable of precisely setting all data in the four postcard frames on such a four-postcard sheet, the page order of the data must be controlled such that the upper-surface data (addresses) and the lower-surface data (texts) must properly correspond to each other. An address and text may not match, and wrong data may be used for a given person.
In addition, if not all four surfaces are used, the remaining surface is wasted. In the case of a four-postal-card sheet, in particular, not only paper but also the cost of a postage stamp is wasted.
In the case of a four-postcard sheet, a fixed layout is used. If, therefore, preceding settings such as a binding margin and enlargement/reduction are left unchanged, this directly leads to print errors.
Furthermore, a four-postcard sheet is a special sheet, which demands management of security and charging.